The Fastest Growing Religion In America Is Witchcraft

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August 08, 2018, 02:38:10 am suzytr says: Hello, any good churches in the Sacto, CA area, also looking in Reno NV, thanks in advance and God Bless you January 29, 2018, 01:21:57 am Christian40 says: It will be interesting to see what happens this year Israel being 70 years as a modern nation may 14 2018October 17, 2017, 01:25:20 am Christian40 says: It is good to type Mark is here again! October 16, 2017, 03:28:18 am Christian40 says: anyone else thinking that time is accelerating now? it seems im doing days in shorter time now is time being affected in some way?September 24, 2017, 10:45:16 pm Psalm 51:17 says: The specific rule pertaining to the national anthem is found on pages A62-63 of the league rulebook. It states: “The National Anthem must be played prior to every NFL game, and all players must be on the sideline for the National Anthem. “During the National Anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking. The home team should ensure that the American flag is in good condition. It should be pointed out to players and coaches that we continue to be judged by the public in this area of respect for the flag and our country. Failure to be on the field by the start of the National Anthem may result in discipline, such as fines, suspensions, and/or the forfeiture of draft choice(s) for violations of the above, including first offenses.”﻿September 20, 2017, 04:32:32 am Christian40 says: "The most popular Hepatitis B vaccine is nothing short of a witch’s brew including aluminum, formaldehyde, yeast, amino acids, and soy. Aluminum is a known neurotoxin that destroys cellular metabolism and function. Hundreds of studies link to the ravaging effects of aluminum. The other proteins and formaldehyde serve to activate the immune system and open up the blood-brain barrier. This is NOT a good thing."http://www.naturalnews.com/2017-08-11-new-fda-approved-hepatitis-b-vaccine-found-to-increase-heart-attack-risk-by-700.htmlSeptember 19, 2017, 03:59:21 am Christian40 says: bbc international did a video about there street preaching they are good witnessesSeptember 14, 2017, 08:06:04 am Psalm 51:17 says: bro Mark Hunter on YT has some good, edifying stuff too.September 14, 2017, 04:31:26 am Christian40 says: i have thought that i'm reaping from past sins then my life has been impacted in ways from having non believers in my ancestry.September 11, 2017, 06:59:33 am Psalm 51:17 says: The law of reaping and sowing. It's amazing how God's mercy and longsuffering has hovered over America so long. (ie, the infrastructure is very bad here b/c for many years, they were grossly underspent on. 1st Tim 6:10, the god of materialism has its roots firmly in the West) And remember once upon a time ago when shacking up b/w straight couples drew shock awe?

Exodus 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;View Shout History

“Mysticore” is the new norm: Inside the trend that’s casting its spell over the cultureLaura Bolt

Welcome to the season of the witch. Recently, the Brooklyn Academy of Music hosted a Witches Brew film festival, which included the acclaimed new film “The Witch.” Lately it isn’t uncommon to see glossy magazines like Nylon with headlines that start “The Witches’ Guide to…”, while new publications like Sabat, an aesthetically driven magazine that explores contemporary witchcraft, are attracting attention from readers and design snobs alike.

Stores specializing in metaphysical sundries (think ritual candles, blended oils, sacred herbs) like Spellbound Sky and House of Intuition in Los Angeles, while not brand-new, are suddenly crowded. In Brooklyn, Witches of Bushwick has evolved from a venue on the underground party circuit to a social collective that celebrates witchcraft as a feminist art and collaborates with fashion companies like Chromat. Of course, for those who prefer whipping up potions at home, several new witch- and occult-themed subscription boxes deliver the magical arts to the doorstep.

Not just witches are enjoying a cultural renaissance, though. All manner of magic is in the air, as the New Age movement’s lighter granola-and-Zen fare has given way to the practice of a more modern mysticism, where conversations about conjuring, personal shamans and powerful potions can be intense as they are ubiquitous. While social media and feminism have brought witchcraft to the fore, the new kaleidoscopic array of spell casting, ritual observing (from pagan holidays to full moons) and crystal charging draws from traditional mysticism, magic and paganism. Served buffet style to an eager audience of open-minded converts, it’s shining a white light on everything from fashion and health to politics.

This may be the most prevalent, hidden-in-plain sight trend that you couldn’t quite put a finger on since “normcore.” Last fall the folks at trend-forecasting firm K-Hole — which coined the term “normcore” — looked into the cultural crystal ball to release a paper dubbed “A Report on Doubt.” Normcore, that infinitely hashtag-able trend that tapped into a “post-authenticity coolness that opts into sameness,” stood against style clichés and aggressive street-style peacocking — it promised freedom through assimilation. After an endless stream of articles about how wearing dad jeans was indeed the ultimate hipster power move, time had come for the cultural pendulum to swing. K-Hole’s new prediction was that logic and “sameness” were becoming relics and people were about to head into the mystic.

Call it post-reason or pro-intuition, this new phase rejects the positively beige normcore values in favor of highly personal, emotional responses to fashion, culture and politics. (Donald Trump’s rise certainly reads as more of a manifestation of personal desire than a reasonable course of action paved by logic and solid judgment.) Dubbing this new philosophy “Chaos Magic,” a term that’s been bantered about in the postmodern Magick community for decades), K-Hole prophesied, “The fundamental element of magic is the ability to manifest or sublimate things.”

Plus, K-Hole observed, “Chaos Magic lives in the same realm as the cult of positive thinking. But it goes beyond making mood boards of high end apartments you’d like to will into your possession. . . . You opt into whatever belief system you think will help you reach your intended goals.” Put simply, K-Hole’s version of Chaos Magic is the antidote to overthinking, a means of manifesting individual desires onto the universe — a “radical DIY.”

VIDEOSocial media gets fashion front row

The report has been cited by Vogue, which found Chaos Magic in the personal imprints of designers like Nicolas Ghesquière (who penned a letter to accompany his debut Louis Vuitton show) and of Riccardo Tisci (who for Givenchy’s spring 2016 show brought in Marina Abramovic to craft a spiritual mood). Meanwhile, designer JW Anderson has evoked the trend more literally, sewing celestial symbols into his knitwear.

Check social media: A search for #witch on Instagram yields about 2,375,000 posts — whereas one for #kardashian scores only 1,630,000. Search next time at a boutique: Tarot decks are coming back in high style, thanks to retailers like the Wild Unknown — its artful cards are in stores across the country, from upscale meccas like ABC Home in New York City to indie hot spots like Skylark in Venice Beach, California. K-Hole was right, “mysticore” is the new norm.

But why? In an editorial earlier this year, N+1 recalled the postwar era’s suspicion of New Age thinking, heralded by Theodor Adorno’s criticism of horoscopes, based on his reading of the Los Angeles Times’ astrology column in 1952. In Adorno’s mind, astrology was a superstition that encouraged political passivity.

Maybe he was onto something. Consider the simple maxim: In uncertain times, people turn to religion to make sense of the world around them.

Today, however, as traditional Western religion loses some of its appeal (a recent Pew survey found that as of 2014, fewer adults, especially millennials, describe themselves as religiously affiliated), mysticism, witchcraft and magic are stepping in to fill the spiritual void.

“It correlates with nature, clean living movements, and earthy values,” said Elisabeth Krohn, Sabat’s founder and editor. “Whether you blame it on Trump, global capitalism or Internet culture, I feel many crave a less cynical world, something non-linear, even mystical.”

The current surge of mystical thought is also directly tied to the sense of personal empowerment that modern feminism works toward. “The witch as an icon is resonating right now because we’ve entered a fourth wave of feminism,” said Pam Grossman, author of What Is a Witch and co-founder of the Occult Humanities Conference at New York University. “We are redefining what power, leadership, beauty and value look like on our own terms. And the witch is the ultimate symbol of female power. Doing witchcraft is a way to connect to that energy, which is so needed right now, as we’re beginning to collectively course correct thousands of years of sexism and oppression.”

A visit to the temple of Instagram (and Tumblr and Snapchat) makes it easy to see how mysticore appeals to the generation of internet autodidacts that grew up on Harry Potter. In social media, the idea of tapping into something ancient is suddenly accessible, personal and highly individualized, which is very much in line with the idea of Chaos Magic itself (even in its original, non-trend-spotting incarnation).

“I don’t believe that those who dabble in mysticism because it’s a trend or passing curiosity actually take anything away from more ‘serious’ practitioners,” Grossman said. “For some people, that tarot deck that they bought just might be the gateway to a road of deeper inquiry. Or it may be something they toss aside in a month. It doesn’t hurt anyone in either case.”

Whether individuals are searching for obscure Aleister Crowley texts while planning an equinox ritual or just matching their nail color to the crystals the choose-your-own adventure nature of mysticore gives it a flexibility almost unmatched in the world of trends — except for maybe athleisure, which is flexible by nature. And for those looking for a place to start, the Hoodwitch’s Bri Luna, another Vogue favorite, recently collaborated on a nail-polish line with Floss Gloss.

Grossman, for one, doesn’t see mysticore going away anytime soon. “Magic is a shape-shifter,” she said. “It doesn’t care what form it takes. It just wants to flow and be known.”

The temple's application proposes renting space at Centennial for about an hour after school one day a month during the school year. "This is going to be infectious and widespread," said Mike Cheek, who has grandchildren in the district. "I know that if there is anything to do with Satan, it is dark and it is evil."9/23/16

Lawyer: After School Satan Club must be allowed to proceed

“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.” Ephesians 5:11 (KJV)

MOUNT VERNON — A so-called “After School Satan Club” proposed by the Satanic Temple of Seattle to be held at Centennial Elementary School should be allowed to proceed, an attorney hired to represent the Mount Vernon School District said.

“I think that if the school district denied that application, you would face costly litigation that would be distracting from your mission,” said Duncan Fobes of the Seattle-based law firm Patterson, Buchanan, Fobes and Leitch during a Wednesday meeting of the Mount Vernon School Board. “And would ultimately be unsuccessful.”

Fobes was hired by the district’s risk-pool insurance group to assess whether the district had legal standing to deny the temple’s application.

“We believe that it’s clear that, because the district has a policy and procedure that encourages the use of community groups to use your facilities, because you do that, you must open it to this group,” Fobes said. “You don’t have to sponsor the group, you don’t have to help the group.”

A 2001 Supreme Court ruling, Good News Bible Club vs. Milford Central School District, stated that if schools allow any organization to use school property, they must allow all organizations — religious and secular — to have access.

The Mount Vernon district is one of nine throughout the country that has been chosen by the Satanic Temple to host a pilot After School Satan Club program because the districts also host a Good News Bible Club, which is run by the Child Evangelism Fellowship.

“We didn’t invite them to the school, they put our name on a website,” Centennial Principal Erwin Stroosma said. “We feel like we’re pawns in a game — someone else is manipulating us.”The temple’s application proposes renting space at Centennial for about an hour after school one day a month during the school year.

“This is going to be infectious and widespread,” said Mike Cheek, who has grandchildren in the district. “I know that if there is anything to do with Satan, it is dark and it is evil.” When asked by a parent to raise their hands if they didn’t want the After School Satan Club to take root at Centennial, nearly every community member in attendance did so.

“They say they’re not going to teach anything bad, but we don’t know,” Moises Pacheco, whose grandchildren attend Madison Elementary, said through a translator.Other parents were less concerned.

“It feels like we’re all reacting with fear,” said Melissa McPhaden. “I’m not afraid of what this church can do, because I have a relationship with my children.” The temple claims to worship no deity, but previously told the Skagit Valley Herald it uses Satan “as a metaphor for fighting religious tyranny and oppression.”

“I think the reason the (temple) is here is because they wanted a reaction,” McPhaden said. “And they got the reaction. I don’t think they want to start a Satanic club in Mount Vernon.”

A representative from the Satanic Temple of Seattle did not return calls Thursday by the Skagit Valley Herald.

Fobes said the district has the right to review the proposed curriculum for the club, but it cannot prohibit the club from school property unless that curriculum uses hate speech, incites violence or includes pornography.

“What this group purports is they support rational thinking activities,” Fobes said. “I don’t know what they actually do because no one’s done it yet. This is a pretty new undertaking by this group.”

“And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.” Revelation 16:10,11 (KJV)

The district cannot ban all after-school groups in an effort to keep the temple out, Fobes said, and even if it could, doing so would likely open it up to lawsuits. “I think it’s not an option here,” Fobes said. “I believe in this particular case you would still face some litigation, not only from the Satanic Temple, but also from the Good News club.”

The district would also lose out on whatever revenue is generated by allowing groups to use its facilities.

“Very unfortunately, our hands are tied in this question,” Board President Rob Coffey said. “We must make our facilities available — and in many cases we are eager to make them available — to Boys & Girls Clubs, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts. We must make them available whether we like the group or not. There really is no opportunity for us to say no to the Satanic Temple or the After School Satan Club.”

Superintendent Carl Bruner said Thursday he intends to meet again with Fobes. source

Jordan Belamire has been sexually assaulted three times. Twice in real life, and once in virtual reality.

Belamire who goes by a pseudonym to protect her privacy, was playing a game called QuiVr on her brother-in-law's HTC Vive VR system. She was shooting zombies with strangers in QuiVr's multiplayer mode when another player began to virtually rub her chest.

"I've been groped in real life, once in a Starbucks in broad daylight. I know what it's like to happen in person," Belamire, 30, told CNNMoney. "The shock and disgust I felt [in QuiVr] was not too far off from that."

Another user, BigBro442 had apparently caught on that she was a woman because her mic was on and her voice was streaming through to the virtual world.

"He chased me around, making grabbing and pinching motions near my chest. Emboldened, he even shoved his hand toward my virtual crotch and began rubbing," she wrote in a Medium post about the incident last week.

Belamire's post caught a lot of attention online, the most disturbing being strangers who told her she was making a lot of fuss about nothing.

"Please explain how someone can be assaulted in any form using VR. This seems to be someone whining just to whine" was a common refrain on Twitter. Belamire temporarily suspended her Twitter account as a result.

Belamire said she's "more disturbed by the backlash than the VR incident itself."

Related: 4chan, a popular hub for offensive posts, shows signs of distress

"It's not real, therefore it's OK; this is the amoral substructure of gaming culture. This, far more than anonymity, is the source of much gender and racial harassment on the internet," wrote sociologist and gaming critic Katherine Cross in a paper titled "Ethics for Cyborgs."

Other women have described similar experiences while immersed in foreign virtual lands. One woman wrote about her experience being groped virtually last March: "I still tensed up and felt uncomfortable, and removing the headset didn't take that feeling away."

No, sexual assault in the virtual world isn't the same as in real life -- but that doesn't mean it doesn't have an effect. Video games are largely developed by men, which makes it less likely that they're designed with a woman in mind.

Entrepreneur and activist Cindy Gallop likened it to Twitter's trolling problem. "Men in tech #vr, don't make the mistake Twitter did. DESIGN THIS **** OUT RIGHT NOW," she tweeted.

"The men that make these games genuinely don't seem to understand that it's sexual assault," game developer Brianna Wu told CNNMoney. "Women barely work on these teams, so there's no voice of conscience."

"Subjects sometimes feel as if the body that they see in front of them is their own," write researchers Michael Madary and Thomas Metzinger from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.

Madary and Metzinger suggest that there needs to be a code of conduct in VR since its psychological effects are still unknown.

Indeed, Belamire told CNNMoney that the hand that stroked her felt "very lifelike. You can make the fingers move in really realistic ways."

AltspaceVR, a VR chatroom, introduced a personal bubble feature as a means of combat harassment in the virtual world. If users enable it, others in the virtual world have to stay at least one foot away. Blueteak, the developer of QuiVr, said it was also rolling out this feature.

"It's a gameplay solution to one problem. But we need industry standards," said Wu.

Oculus, HTC and Microsoft did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Forget all of the demonic stuff that's outwardly and blatantly going on presently - THIS I believe is a MAJOR end times, albeit very subtle sin that is really rampantly going on now (and had people on this very message forum doing such for a long time). This is 2 hours long (rare for sermons nowdays), but a MUST listen!

Many Young Adults Are Turning to Witchcraft as a Way to Rebel Against Their Conservative Christian Upbringings

Young adults in America are far less likely to identify themselves as "Christians" than previous generations of Americans, but that does not mean that they have given up on searching for spiritual meaning in their lives.

According to Wikipedia, one very popular form of witchcraft known as Wicca has been growing at a rate of more than 100 percent annually in recent years, and this has been happening at a time when Christianity has been in decline in the United States. Of course, other pagan and occult groups have been exploding in popularity as well, and as you will see below, one of the primary reasons for this is because many young adults are seeking ways to rebel against their conservative Christian upbringings.

I have written much about how young adults in this country are far more politically liberal than their parents and grandparents, and this enormous cultural shift in values has a spiritual dimension as well.

A recent Barna Group study found that only 4 percent of Americans aged 18 to 29 have a biblical worldview.

Only 4 percent.

The shocking truth is that the values of most millennials fit much more easily fit into pagan spirituality than they do into most evangelical Christian churches.

If you want to sleep around with as many people as possible, that is OK in witchcraft. If you want to take drugs and get high every day, that is OK in witchcraft. If you want to be a radical pro-abortion feminist, that is OK in witchcraft. If you want to be a gay transsexual exhibitionist, that is OK in witchcraft.

Essentially, one of the great draws of witchcraft is that nobody holds you accountable for anything, and you can do so many of the things that the Bible commands you not to do.

So for those who wish to rebel against their conservative Christian upbringings, getting involved in witchcraft can seem quite natural:

Witchcraft in this context is a "counter spirituality to the religious conservatism that defined many [queer people's] childhoods," as game developer Aevee Bee puts it. The visual novel Bee co-created, We Know The Devil, explores what it means to embrace witchcraft through three queer teens who attend a Christian summer camp, where they spend a night in the woods awaiting the devil. "What [the protagonists] encounter in the woods they understand and perceive as the devil because that is what they have been taught to understand their desires, identity, and love as," Bee says. By embracing the devil, the protagonists find liberation from their religious upbringings, just as someone might by realizing it's acceptable to be queer.

Alex Mar is one prominent author who became deeply involved in the world of witchcraft, but she was not raised that way. In fact, Mar is very open about the fact that she was raised as a Christian:

I was born and raised in New York City, but my roots are more exotic: between my Cuban Catholic mother and my Greek Orthodox father, family religion involved the lushest, most high-drama strains of Christianity. The elaborate clerical robes, the incense and tiers of prayer candles, the stories of the martyrs cut into stained glass, the barely decipherable chants—as a child, these were embedded in my brain. To this day, despite my liberal feminist politics, I still imagine the world as overseen by a handsome, bearded young white man.

She says that once she learned "to think for myself", her liberal political views took her away from the church, and those same political views eventually sparked a curiosity about witchcraft:

Once I was old enough to think for myself, I broke with the church on issues of sexuality, marriage, the right to choose and the concept of "sin"; I also couldn't swallow the thin reasoning behind excluding women from the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox priesthoods. At the same time, however, I was haunted by the memory of high Mass, the sense that there are mysteries in the universe. When I learned that there was a living, growing American witchcraft movement—one that is radically inclusive, that views women as equals to men, and in which God is just as likely to be female—I was instantly curious.

This is why what we feed our minds with is so vitally important.

Our public schools have become liberal indoctrination centers that are teaching our young people to adopt an anti-Christian way of viewing the world, and all of that propaganda is being backed up by the thousands upon thousands of anti-Christian entertainment that our young people are constantly consuming.

So it is actually not a surprise when many of our "Christian young people" end up like this guy:

Dakota Hendrix, a non-binary trans witch based in New York—an identity Hendrix jokingly refers to as "goat femme," describing their combination of body hair, a smoky eye, and talons for nails—says the practice of witchcraft is a way to take control in a world that can be both metaphysically and mortally threatening.

It's a supernatural form of self-defense that Hendrix says includes amulets that fight off mis-gendering, rituals that provide protection when walking down the street, and paying honor to queer and trans ancestors who don't have descendants of their own paying homage. Not to mention—since, Hendrix says, contemporary witchcraft is connected to social justice work—a hex or two on the NYPD for good measure.

But while the rituals are plentiful, the rules are not, and Hendrix says being a witch is all about choosing one's own path: "Being a witch is being autonomous; that's the whole point. That's how we draw power. We are defying the patriarchy, we are defying the submissive norm."

Allowing our children to immerse themselves in popular culture is doing far more harm than most of us originally realized.

Popular culture is trying to take the next generation away from Christianity, and it is imperative that we start to understand this. And actually, many of the "stars" our young people idolize are actually into the occult themselves, and once in a while they even admit this openly:

"I'm really a witch," rapper Azealia Banks quipped last January, shortly before all hell broke loose on her Twitter account.

Banks is known for her online rants. She tends to share fairly dense ideas, spontaneously spun out in punchy lines liberally interspersed with curse words. I don't know a person on this earth who can agree with every one of them, but her opinions are smarter than she usually gets credit for.

Still, even by Banks' standards, the witch thing was weird. It came out in the middle of a run about black Americans and their relationship to Christianity:

I wonder if most of the black American Christians in the U.S. know WHY they are Christian. I wonder if they even consider for a SECOND that before their ancestors came to the Americas that they may have believed in something ELSE.

As a Christian, it deeply alarms me that we are losing an entire generation of Americans.

If we keep doing the same things we have been doing, we will continue to get similar results. That is one of the reasons I laid out a recipe for spiritual renewal in my latest book, entitled The Rapture Verdict, and my hope is that the church establishment will embrace what watchmen such as myself are saying instead of fighting it.

If we continue on with business as usual, the evangelical church in America will continue to shrink and multitudes of our young people will continue to seek out other outlets for their spirituality.

At the same time that interest in witchcraft is growing, interest in Satanism is skyrocketing as well. I recently wrote about how the Satanic Temple has experienced a huge surge in membership since Donald Trump's election victory in November, and at Clemson University students are reportedly going to hold a "lamb sacrifice" and a "Bible burning" to celebrate the opening of a new campus chapel:

The poster contains imagery associated with Satanism, like pentagrams and an illustration of the goat-headed Baphomet.

It goes on to state that a live lamb will be provided for sacrifice by "[their] friends" at the Clemson Collegiate Farm Bureau. A Bible-torching ceremony is listed as part of the proceedings, with a cash prize for the student who burns the most Bibles. Finally, attendees are invited partake in a pentagram completion event, where they will "help summon Baphomet to celebrate the new Clemson Chapel."

There was a time when it would have been unthinkable to put up a poster like that in America, but unfortunately those days are long gone.

Christianity is on the decline in this nation, and witchcraft and Satanism are on the rise.

We desperately need a major spiritual renewal, so my hope is that the church in America will wake up soon.

World’s Largest Pagan Festival, ‘Burning Man’, Set To Start This Sunday In The Black Rock Desert In NevadaThe event's website says: 'Burning Man is permeated with rituals. These rites speak of soulful need; the desire to belong to a place, to belong to a time, to belong to one another, and to belong to something that is greater than ourselves, even in the midst of impermanence. 'Throughout all ages temples have been built in order to induce these feelings.' The festival is erecting a temple commemorating the Golden Spike and participants are invited to visit the shrine and make offerings that embody what Burning Man's culture means to them.8/25/17http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/worlds-largest-pagan-festival-burning-man-set-start-sunday-black-rock-desert-nevada/

Organizers of the iconic Burning Man festival have begun setting up shop with massive art installations as they prepare for tens of thousands to descend upon the Nevada desert.

“And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place. Ye shall not do so unto the LORD your God.” Deuteronomy 12:3,4 (KJV)

EDITOR’S NOTE: Every year, in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, the world’s largest pagan religious festival known as ‘Burning Man’ is held for a week. What can you expect to find at Burning Man? You will find everything from hippies rolling in the dirt all the way up to elite tech billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk living like kings on safari in ancient India. It is a religious festival for people who see themselves as their own god, or see no God at all. It is biblically ironic that the main theme of the fest is a, enormous wooden statue of a man burning in flames, and the people cheer wildly as the smoke of his torment ascends up forever and ever. Hmm, now where have I read that before? I think the Bible refers to them as ‘burners’, too.

Before hordes flock to the makeshift city from Sunday until September 4, Black Rock Desert has to be transformed into a ‘metropolis dedicated to community, art, self-expression and self-reliance’. Every August the barren landscape shifts to a world of art, and preparation is already underway as photos reveal large structures being constructed.

A towering temple and ‘The Man’ were seen half completed, as the works are expected to be focal points of this year’s festival theme of Radical Ritual.

According to the event’s website, dozens of art installations are expected to be constructed before the end of the weekend, some made from wire, others as patterns on the ground and some as immersive experiences.

Despite its fearsome legacy, witchcraft is rising in popularity in New York state and especially in the Hudson Valley.

News 12's Tara Rosenblum spent four months exploring and gaining access to a mysterious, secretive world that most people don't even know exist: a thriving underground community of witches.

Watch "Speak No Evil," only on News 12, starting Tuesday to learn about the modern-day magic and ancient rituals at the center of their faith. Tune in to meet some of the most powerful witches in New York and see what happens when they come together to perform a white magic ritual and summon sacred spirits.

Part one of the series airs Tuesday starting at 4:30 p.m., and part two airs on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m.

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/worshiper-pagan-burning-man-festival-stuns-crowd-throwing-flames/Worshiper At Pagan Burning Man Festival In Nevada Stuns Crowd By Throwing Himself Into The FlamesApproximately 70,000 people from all over the world have gathered for the annual Burning Man festival, which is taking place in the Black Rock Desert. But crowds were horrified when one reveler made a beeline for the giant wooden effigy and was engulfed by the flames. He had to dodge a number of rangers and law enforcement personnel in order to reach the fire, which stretches approximately 50 feet into the air. It is believed the man died in the shocking incident, although this has not yet been confirmed.

by Geoffrey Grider September 3, 2017Emergency services bravely tried to rescue a festival-goer who ran straight into the Burning Man during Nevada’s famous arts and music festival.

“And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” Mark 9:43,44 (KJV)

EDITOR’S NOTE: New Agers get mad when I call Burning Man the world’s largest pagan festival, but guess what? It is. And like all paganism, it celebrates the accomplishments of man outside of any relationship with the God who created man, but with a twist. Burning Man is a festival celebrating unregenerate man as said man burns in eternal flames of torment, kinda like how the Bible says unsaved people wind up after they die rejecting the salvation of Jesus Christ. I wonder what this man who threw himself into the fire thought when, after he presumably died in the flames, he opened his eyes in a burning Hell from which there is no escape? Get saved and avoid the smoking section.

Approximately 70,000 people from all over the world have gathered for the annual Burning Man festival, which is taking place in the Black Rock Desert. But crowds were horrified when one reveler made a beeline for the giant wooden effigy and was engulfed by the flames.

He had to dodge a number of rangers and law enforcement personnel in order to reach the fire, which stretches approximately 50 feet into the air.

It is believed the man died in the shocking incident, although this has not yet been confirmed.

The festival issued a statement through its website to say that at ‘approximately 10.30pm Saturday evening, a male participant at the annual Burning Man event in Northern Nevada broke through a safety perimeter and into into a fire. Black Rock City fire personnel rescued him from the fire.’

‘The individual was treated on scene, transported to the on-site medical facility and airlifted to a burn center’. source

The Washington Post has published an article in which the author (a founder of a Satanic temple) is clearly promoting Satanism. Is this the natural progression of the Marxist movement in our country? We consider the connections between Karl Marx and the early Communist revolutionaries who often promoted Satan as the original rebel against God. While Marx himself is often viewed as an Atheist, the reality is that he used Atheism only as a weapon to fight against "the One Who rules above." Will the radical left now begin promoting the open acceptance of Satanism in their pursuit of undermining the free world?

I’ll let you determine what “miracle” the once popular Miracle Video store at 19th and Haskell was promoting. But the new store that has taken its place also is in a business where the topic of miracles comes up. It is a religious supply store, but perhaps not the type of religion you are thinking of.

The store sells supplies for Wicca and other pagan religions. And it is not new at it, either. The store is the Village Witch, which previously was located in North Lawrence in a stone building a couple of doors down from Johnny’s Tavern. Owner Kerry Johnson said the store had been in the North Lawrence location for about 10 years. Pagan religion, it seems, is not a passing fad.

But what type of supplies do you need for it? I know in my religion two of the most important are a pillow to make the pew softer, or, conversely, a clock for the pastor. I’m not sure it is quite the same in the pagan religions. Johnson said the store sells a lot of candles and incense, which can be used in ceremonial rituals, including the casting of spells. Yes, spell casting is part of the religion, and Johnson said it makes sense if you think about it in the proper context.

“A spell is very much like a prayer,” said Johnson, who said she enjoys explaining the religion to people. “It is a petition to the gods to act in your favor. We bump it up a bit by burning incense.”

Other supplies sold at the store include books, tarot cards, statuettes of gods and goddesses, cauldrons and ritual knives. I’m not entirely versed in how the knives are used, but you shouldn’t assume the worst. As a reminder, some religions use staffs and rods as part of their rituals.

Johnson said not everyone who comes into the store is a practicing pagan. She said the store has a large jewelry selection, which brings in many nonpagans, as does its incense inventory. With the move, Johnson has expanded by bringing in daughter-in-law Ashlie Christianson, who operates the Green Goddess. That business sells a variety of herbal products, including homemade soaps, essential oils, bath and body products, herbal teas and other such items.

Johnson said she decided to move the business to 19th and Haskell after the other woman she was sharing the shop with in North Lawrence decided to go in a different direction. Plus, the new location is convenient for her family’s other business. Her family operates the Cosmic Cafe that also is located in the 19th and Haskell shopping center.

Johnson said she is confident her customers will find her in the new location. She said customers come from throughout the region. Although Kansas City has several pagan-based religious stores, she said many Kansas City residents frequently come to Lawrence to check out her shop. Johnson said there are fewer pagan-based stores west of Lawrence, so Lawrence ends up being a shopping destination for those folks.

As for the future, Johnson said the number of pagans in Lawrence seems to be on the rise. In particular, the pagan branch known as Wicca is a fast-growing religion. Johnson has been part of the Wicca religion for many years and now is a high priestess of one of the covens that meet in Lawrence.

Yes, Wicca does involves several pieces of terminology associated with witches, as the store’s name implies. Practitioners are commonly called witches. But Johnson said there are quite a few misunderstandings non-Wiccans have about the religion.

Probably the biggest is an assumption that Wiccans are Satan worshippers. Johnson said the Wiccan religion actually doesn’t believe in a Satan figure.

“If you did something bad, it is on you, not on Satan,” she said.

The religion does believe in Karma. Female figures play a central role in the religion, and practitioners of Wicca generally don’t proselytize, believing that religion is a very personal decision.

Johnson said Lawrence has been a great location for the store because the community is open-minded about ideas outside the mainstream.

“We’ve never had a problem with people being respectful in Lawrence,” Johnson said.

UPDATE: In reporting this story I’ve learned that Johnson’s old business partner has a similar venture operating in North Lawrence. Kacey Carlson is operating Third Eye Sadie’s at 311 N Second Street.

The store also sells supplies for Wicca and pagan religions. But Carlson said the store plans to be a little bit wider in its reach.

“We’re aiming the space a little more toward global spirituality,” she said.

That means the store doesn’t just have jewelry and items from the Nordic or European regions, which are popular in Wicca, but also has some Tibetan and African jewelry too. Carlson thinks the store’s inventory will appeal to a lot of people regardless of whether they are interested in the items for their religious purposes.

“Sometimes I call it a shiny object girl store,” Carlson said. “There is a lot of emphasis on gemstones here.”

When Coco Layne, a Brooklyn-based producer, meets someone new these days, the first question that comes up in conversation isn’t “Where do you live?” or “What do you do?” but “What’s your sign?”

“So many millennials read their horoscopes every day and believe them,” Layne, who is involved in a number of nonreligious spiritual practices, said. “It is a good reference point to identify and place people in the world.”

Interest in spirituality has been booming in recent years while interest in religion plummets, especially among millennials. The majority of Americans now believe it is not necessary to believe in God to have good morals, a study from Pew Research Center released Wednesday found. The percentage of people between the ages of 18 and 29 who “never doubt existence of God” fell from 81% in 2007 to 67% in 2012.

Meanwhile, more than half of young adults in the U.S. believe astrology is a science. compared to less than 8% of the Chinese public. The psychic services industry — which includes astrology, aura reading, mediumship, tarot-card reading and palmistry, among other metaphysical services — grew 2% between 2011 and 2016. It is now worth $2 billion annually, according to industry analysis firm IBIS World.An image from a market hosted by Catland, where customers can buy occult accessories.

Melissa Jayne, owner of Brooklyn-based “metaphysical boutique” Catland, said she has seen a major uptick in interest in the occult in the past five years, especially among New Yorkers in their 20s. The store offers workshops like “Witchcraft 101,” “Astrology 101,” and a “Spirit Seance.”

“Whether it be spell-casting, tarot, astrology, meditation and trance, or herbalism, these traditions offer tangible ways for people to enact change in their lives,” she said. “For a generation that grew up in a world of big industry, environmental destruction, large and oppressive governments, and toxic social structures, all of which seem too big to change, this can be incredibly attractive.”Co—Star, a new app for millennials

Like the existence of God, however, there’s no actual scientific proof. Astrology has been debunked by numerous academic studies, but Banu Guler, co-founder of artificial intelligence powered astrology app Co—Star said the lack of structure in the field is exactly what drives young, educated professionals to invest their time and money in the practice.

“It’s very different from the way we usually work and live and date, where everything is hyper-mediated and rational,” she said. “There is a belief vacuum: we go from work to a bar to dinner and a date, with no semblance of meaning. Astrology is a way out of it, a way of putting yourself in the context of thousands of years of history and the universe.”

Case in point: Co—Star’s servers were so overwhelmed by demand after it launched on October 12 that the app crashed three times in its first week.

Astrology isn’t the only spiritual field overwhelmed by demand: Danielle Ayoka, the founder of spiritual subscription service Mystic Lipstick, said her customer base is growing exponentially. The self-described astrologer sells a “mystic box” subscription, which includes crystals, “reiki-infused bath salts,” and incense customized to the unique energy of the current moon cycle for $14.99 a month. She says she’s seen 75% increase in her audience in the past year.

“When I started my journey in 2010, I was the weirdo,” she said. “Now it is becoming more and more normalized, and I believe it is because more people are looking to heal. Millennials are much more open-minded.”One Mystic Lipstick box, which is $14.99 a month.

With this overwhelming demand comes a rise of products claiming metaphysical benefits, not all of which take the cultural context of the occult into account, notes Layne. Urban Outfitters sells sage, a product that has its roots in indigenous cleansing ceremonies, for $18 a pop and a crystal mobile for $32.

Actress turned CEO Gwyneth Paltrow sells a variety of spiritual wares on her website, many of which are borrowed or “inspired” by other cultures. A jade egg that costs $66 has its roots in ancient Taoist practice. Her $85 “Goop Medicine Bag” is “inspired by the Shaman’s medicine bag from various indigenous traditions,” and a $59 Tarot card deck features “mystical artwork” that mirrors Native American patterns.

But Layne, whose interest in Eastern medicine is rooted in her Taiwanese heritage, said white women are often able to profit from ancient practices that are not theirs to sell.

“It is really important to give credit to who is doing the work,” Layne said. “There is a whole culture of white women who capitalize off of spirituality, but it all comes from people of color. People need to do their homework: being in touch with your spiritual side is a natural, human thing to do. To be able to connect yourself is essential to healing not only your own wounds, but healing together.”

As millennials continue to leave traditional Christian religions, interest in Wiccan and pagan practices have seen increased interest in recent years, a trend also spotted among young people and on college campuses. Pagan or Wiccan student groups are present on a number of college campuses — both secular and religious — across the nation. The growing normalization of such practices, albeit still a minority, corresponds with the decline in Christian believers, some observers note.

From organizing mass hexes to setting up witch-themed Etsy stores, the feminist movement and witchcraft are becoming increasingly entwined.

In an article this week, feminist and author Laurie Penny documented the “boom in online occultism” and why feminists are so attracted to witchcraft.

“Days after Donald Trump won the U.S. election, videos of women ‘hexing’ Trump went viral around the world, encouraging budding magical practitioners to burn images of the president-elect to bring his works to ruin,” reported Penny on Wednesday. “Meanwhile, an entire explosive industry of witch-paraphernalia is boiling out of the cauldron of digital consumer culture.”

“You can buy your crocheted bat-bunting and your broomstick-decals on Etsy, while a couple of clicks away anonymous web artisans peddle laptop stickers declaring the owner, with more or less accuracy, a daughter of the witches they weren’t able to burn,” she explained. “Commodification is usually a poisoned apple for movements like this, but there’s a proud legacy of repurposing the witch-aesthetic for radical ends.”

The two scenes have become so intertwined that the term “witch” has even started to become synonymous with “feminist,” as online stores such as Witchsy sell feminist witch-themed goods.

Dozens of witch-related products, ranging from pentagram-decorated clothing to “I’m a witch, you’re a ****” pins, can be found on Witchsy among more typical feminist merchandise, while searching “feminist witch” on Etsy returns over 750 results.

Though a large percentage of “feminist witches” undoubtedly limit themselves to the aesthetic alone, an increase in political mass hexes shows a portion of the movement delves deeper.

Following President Trump’s inauguration, witches, covens, and even A-list celebrities started to hex the president with frequent “spells.”

In July, Lana Del Rey admitted to casting a spell on President Trump, and in October, Vox reported that thousands of members of the “resistance witches” had been casting spells against the president each month.

“On a typical Wednesday, by the light of the waning moon, Kate Doucette joined several thousand strangers on the internet in casting a spell to ‘bind’ Donald Trump,” Vox declared. “Doucette — which is her married name, not her legal name — is one of the ‘resistance witches,’ an at least 13,000-strong umbrella group of internet neo-pagans, Wiccans, solo practitioners who self-identify as ‘hedge witches,’ longtime magical practitioners in various traditions, and committed activists.”

“They’ve come together each month since Trump’s inauguration with one goal: to perform a spell — equal parts quasi-religious ritual and activist performance — to ‘bind’ the president, forming a collective known as the #MagicResistance,” they explained.

So what’s binding feminism and witchcraft?

According to Laurie Penny, “A general sense of powerlessness in a chaotic and competitive society, along with a revived interest in forms of feminism that don’t care who they frighten, may explain the growing appeal of hedge magic as a cultural aesthetic as much as a practice.”

The craze for witchery displays an encouragingly wide understanding that for social change to happen someone has to feel threatened. The paraphernalia of skulls and guts and ravens are merely a uniform that declares intent. I am not a nice, compliant creature, not a princess in training. I am something else. Something darker. There are more like me. Best beware.

Pissing off your overpious relations is as good an excuse as any to dabble in magic—and a good many modern practitioners are spiritual refugees of one sort or another from patriarchal, monotheistic religions as practiced in, for example, large parts of the United States. I’m convinced that part of the reason I first started getting interested in tarot and cartoon spellcraft at a tender age was to annoy my grandmother, who would have made a formidable witch herself had she not got married too young, as so many of her generation did, to some layabout called Jesus Christ who left her to raise six kids with nothing but the promise of salvation.

The feminist witches also see those women persecuted during the 17th century Salem witch trials as their late comrades — tortured and murdered by the patriarchy.

Still, the increase in feminist witchcraft hasn’t led to entirely receptive reactions from others in the witch community.

“The ‘witchblr’ community appropriates non-white cultures (Native American, Yoruba, Hindu, Caribbean, Romani, and so on) and comes up with a lot of shitty excuses for that,” complained one witch to the Verge, who wrote an article about “how witches took over Tumblr in 2017.”

And the community hasn’t been without its controversies; most notably 2015’s “Boneghazi,” where witches fought over the ethics of grave-robbing.

But the trend doesn’t appear to be declining anytime soon, with one follower of the late Anton LaVey’s Church of Satan claiming “the Trump era is an era of an occult renaissance.”

“Occultism keeps becoming more socially relevant in times of economic hardships and political strife,” the user proclaimed.

On the other hand, maybe witchcraft is just an excuse for feminists to pretend to be Hogwarts students from their beloved Harry Potter series.